


a present for hinata

by owlinaminor



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, birthday-related shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 12:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7269016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlinaminor/pseuds/owlinaminor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a visitor at Karasuno's afternoon practice, and he has a present for Hinata.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a present for hinata

**Author's Note:**

> this can be a companion to 164cm, if you want. actually, all my shiratorizawa fics take place in the same universe. i call it What Furudate Hasn't Revealed Yet in my head.
> 
> speaking of, i promise i'm working on microphone phenotype. hinata's birthday was just An Immediate Priority. i gotta show my love for my sunshine son.
> 
> extra thanks to [becky](https://twitter.com/dickaeopolis) for an extra swift beta

There is someone watching the Karasuno boys volleyball team’s afternoon practice.

And not, like, the coaches, or Yachi, or one of Coach Ukai’s friends – someone new.  Someone different.  Someone standing outside the gym, peeking in through one of the windows.  Someone with a head of dark, shiny hair and wide, eager eyes.  Someone fast.

The first time Shouyou notices, he thinks it’s just his imagination.  A shadow that his mind gave a face, or a monster conjured up by lack of sleep.  But then, he sees it a second time, and a third, and a fourth – a face in the window watching their practice.  If he didn’t know any better, he’d say it was watching him.

“Hey, Yacchan,” he says in between drills, taking the towel she hands him gratefully.  “Do you think people from other schools would want to come to spy on Karasuno?  Like how Kageyama went to Seijoh last year?”

Her nose scrunches up as she thinks about it, then she says,  “I think they might!  The team is a lot more well-known now, and you guys are going up against more competitive teams so it’s possible that someone from those teams would want to come!”

“Someone would totally want to come!” Shouyou echoes.  “‘Cause we’re such a cool team!”

“Yeah!”

Shouyou starts bouncing in excitement, then Yachi starts bouncing in response.  For half a minute or so, they bounce in tandem, buyoed up by enthusiasm about how far their team has come.

Then, Yachi settles back down and says, “Wait, Hinata, why do you ask?”

“Because I think someone is.”  Shouyou points at the window, where – lo and behold – there’s that dark head again, poking just above the windowsill.

Yachi jumps so high, Shouyou thinks for a second a stray volleyball must’ve hit the wall next to her.  Her hair is standing on end when she lands, and her goosebumps are almost as big as blueberries.

“Hinata,” she whispers urgently.  “There’s _someone watching us practice_.”

“I know!”  Shouyou grins.  “It’s so cool!  I wonder what they think!”

“It’s not cool, it’s _scary,_ ” Yachi hisses.  “We don’t know who they are, or what they want to do, or, or … or anything!”

“But that makes it excite –”

Before Shouyou can finish his sentence, Yachi’s already halfway across the gym, nearly knocking over the table of water bottles in her quest to find Ennoshita.

* * *

“Hinata, do you know this kid?  He says he’s here to see you.”

Ennoshita’s got his arms crossed, stern glare alternating between Shouyou and the person currently held captive by Tanaka’s right arm.  That person is tall – taller than Shouyou remembers from Interhigh, and almost tall enough that Tanaka has to stand on his tiptoes to maintain his hold on his hostage’s shoulders.  And he’s got dark hair, shorter than it used to be, and dark brown eyes, and a face rapidly turning the color of Yachi when anyone asks her if she’s talked to Shimizu recently.  He’s wearing jeans and a faded purple T-shirt instead of a uniform, and he seems strangely smaller here than on the court, but Shouyou knows him.  Of course Shouyou knows him.

“Goshiki!” Hinata exclaims.  “What’re you doing here?”

“I.  Um.  I.  Uh,” Goshiki splutters.  His face gets even redder, and Shoyou wonders vaguely if he’ll explode if he keeps on doing that.

“Spit it out, kid,” Tanaka orders, punching the kid in question in the stomach with his unoccupied arm.

“I-came-here-to-tell-Hinata-happy-birthday-because-I-know-it’s-his-birthday-and-I-wanted-to-give-him-something-cool-so-that-he’d-be-happy-on-his-birthday!” Goshiki shouts.

Shouyou spends a moment wondering where Goshiki learned to talk for that long without taking a breath, and then the gravity of what he actually said hits.

“You came all the way here!  For me!”  Shouyou hops forward, instincts telling him to go for a hug, but realizes that it would be kind-of hard to hug Goshiki while Tanaka’s still holding onto him like that and settles for just grinning instead.  “That’s so nice!  I didn’t even know you knew it was my birthday!”

“You-mentioned-it-at-the-training-camp!” Goshiki explains.

Training camp?  Shouyou thinks back, then remembers.

“That was, like, months ago,” he says, impressed.  “Oh, but wait, that means you weren’t spying on us, were you?”

“I-was-a-little-bit-but-mostly-I-wanted-to-say-happy-birthday!” Goshiki replies. “Also-your-serves-are-looking-really-good!”

“Okay, I like this kid.”  Tanaka releases Goshiki, who rubs his neck thankfully.  Ennoshita gives him a Look, but Tanaka just shrugs.

“You said you had a present for Hinata?” Ennoshita asks.

Goshiki nods enthusiastically, his hair flopping in front of his face.  It’s kind-of cute, Shouyou realizes with a start.

“Why didn’t you just mail it to him?”

Goshiki, incredibly, gets even redder.  He reminds Shouyou of one of these weird kinds of fish they learned about in elementary school, one that changes color and makes its face blow up like a balloon to make itself more scary, except that Goshiki looks less scary and more on the brink of spontaneous combustion.

“Alright, then,” Ennoshita says with a sigh.  “If all you want to do is give Hinata a present, then go ahead and give it to him.  But next time, maybe meet him somewhere other than the Karasuno gym?  Our practices aren’t exactly open to the public.”

Goshiki nods again, then slips his backpack off his shoulders and leans down to start rifling through it.  While he’s looking, Kageyama emerges from the gym and glares at the intruder, arms crossed.  Tsukishima follows, smirking in that way he has that means he thinks he looks all cool when he secretly really cares about what’s going on.  Yachi pokes her head out from behind Tsukishima, Nishinoya edges his way to the front of the group, and soon, the entire Karasuno team is watching as Goshiki takes what seems like kind-of a long time to search what looks like a not-very-full backpack.

Shouyou leans forward, trying to get a glimpse of what might be inside – he’s never gotten a present from someone who wasn’t his best friends or his family before.  And it’s exciting in the way that other presents aren’t exciting – or, at least, his stomach is flip-flopping all around like Natsu when she plays gymnastics, and it doesn’t usually do that when he gets presents from other people.

But then, after a seemingly endless period of rummaging, Goshiki stands back up.

“I forgot it,” he says.

“You _what_!” Kageyama shouts from the doorway.

“I forgot it!” Goshiki repeats, louder this time.  His face has moved from red to a shade of deep purple, like a raspberry that’s been on the bush too long.

“Well, that’s dumb,” Shouyou says.  He pouts and crosses his arms – and he knows he’s acting like a five-year-old, but, well, he was _really_ looking forward to that present.  “You came all this way and you don’t even have anything to give me.”

“Hinata, don’t be mean,” Yachi reprimands him.

Tsukishima puts his hand up to his mouth, eyes twinkling behind his glasses.  “No, definitely be mean.  Always be mean.”

Shouyou ignores them.  “You should still give me something,” he tells Goshiki.  “Something from your bag, maybe.  I don’t care if it’s small or weird.  It’d still be cool.  Like how _you’re_ cool, with your cool haircut and your cool super-spikes and your cool remembering my birthday and coming all the way up here –”

Once the words start, they just keep pouring out, like a waterfall of badly phrased compliments – and Shouyou’s so busy trying to figure out why he’s saying what he’s saying and when he even _thought_ these things he’s saying and what Goshiki will say to these things he’s saying that he doesn’t notice Goshiki coming closer.

Goshiki.  Coming closer.  Leaning down.  Pressing the lightest kiss to Shouyou’s cheek.

He stays there, for a moment after.  His breath is warm, and close, and smells like peppermints.

“Happy birthday, Hinata Shouyou,” Goshiki says.

And then, he spins around and sprints in the other direction at approximately the speed of sound.

The gym goes dead silent – quieter than Shouyou’s ever heard it, including the time when Sawamura said that if they didn’t shut up he would never buy the team pork buns again.  Shouyou can even hear birds chirping in the trees all the way on the other side of the school.

He feels like something inside him is different.  Like time stopped for a second, someone took the old Shouyou, stuffed him in a closet somewhere, and replaced him with this new Shouyou that’s exactly the same except – not quite.

“Goshiki _kissed you_ ,” Kageyama says.

And the world starts again.  Everyone’s talking at once, and Ennoshita’s trying to get them to be quiet, and people are shouting the next gym over – except that Shouyou still feels.  He doesn’t know.  He feels.  Different.

“But what does it _mean_?” Shouyou asks Kageyama.

Kageyama just stares back at him blankly, like, _why the hell are you asking me, dumbass._

“It means he likes you,” Tsukishima says.  “Idiot.”

A moment passes.  Shouyou mentally plays back everything that just happened.   _Goshiki.  Coming here.  Present.  It means he likes you._  The _different_ slides into place like a key clicking into a lock and Shouyou realizes that it was never really new, just hidden.

And then, he takes off.  Not at the speed of sound – faster.

“Goshikiiiiiiiiiiiiii!  Wait for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

**Author's Note:**

> and then hinata caught up to goshiki and they talked and hugged (and did both at the same time!) for a while. goshiki missed his train and had to sleep over at hinata's. tsukishima laughed so hard when they showed up back at practice, he gave himself a stomach ache. good times were had by all.
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/owlinaminor) / [tumblr](http://owlinaminor.tumblr.com/)


End file.
